Friday, February 26, 2016

Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (EMPOWER) is outraged at
the blocking of The Malaysian Insider
by the Multimedia Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). We are
alarmed that this is only the latest manifestation of an ongoing and worsening
trend of Internet censorship in Malaysia.

Section 3(3) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA
1998) indeed provides that “[n]othing in this Act shall be construed as
permitting the censorship of the Internet.” However, the MCMC has historically
relied on other provisions in the law, including Section 233 on “Improper Use
of Network Facilities or Network Service”, to take actions which amount to
censorship in practice.

The harassment of online news portals under these provisions is
unfortunately not new. For example, in 2009 the MCMC ordered Malaysiakini to take down two videos of
a protest during which residents of Section 23 in Shah Alam paraded a severed
cow’s head as a show of anger against the relocation of a Hindu temple into
their neighbourhood. Section 233 and Section 211 on “offensive content” were
cited in 2009 to justify the order against Malaysiakini.

What we have seen since at least 2013, however, is an
acceleration of arbitrary and disproportionate restrictions of online content
including blocking. In 2013, users of a number of Malaysian Internet Service
Providers could not access websites with content perceived to be critical of
the government, including the website of a citizen election observation
initiative. A number of YouTube videos were also blocked.0F[1]

More recently, the Sarawak
Report has been blocked by the MCMC since mid-2015. At about the same time,
the MCMC even issued a warning against the sharing of parodies and satire on
1MDB over social media, claiming that they were “false or defamatory”
information. Earlier this year an entire writing platform (Medium) was blocked for carrying its content from Sarawak Report. A number of blogs,
including Syed Outside the Box and Din Turtle were also blocked, as was the
news portal Asia Sentinel.

The provisions in CMA 1998 relied upon by the MCMC to block
Internet content are vague and overbroad, and even then are sometimes ignored
altogether: when it banned websites carrying information on the Bersih 4 rally
in 2015, the MCMC’s press statement did not cite any provisions in the law to
justify its actions. In blocking The
Malaysian Insider, the MCMC only provided a justification later. EMPOWER is
concerned there is little transparency and consultation on the part of the MCMC
with regards to standards and decision-making processes.

We have also seen actions taken by the MCMC which appear to be
outside their purview. In August 2015, the MCMC issued a notice to Malaysiakini to take down two articles
as the Commission “found the news in both articles to be untrue.” Determining
the truth of any particular news article is not and should not be one of the
MCMC’s functions. Journalistic ethics is a serious issue in Malaysia, but that
is not for the MCMC to arbitrarily decide – there needs to a participatory,
democratic conversation between the media, the public, and other stakeholders.

We are experiencing a severe erosion of
the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of information in Malaysia,
offline and online. The Internet, including social media and online news
portals, certainly appears to be targeted for particularly repressive measures.
Amendments to the Sedition Act in April 2015 explicitly include electronic
media, and there has been news reports that amendments to the CMA 1998 will be
tabled later in the year. The current trend of arbitrary and disproportionate restrictions
does not augur well for the amendments to the CMA 1998.

EMPOWER calls on the Multimedia Communications and Multimedia Commission to cease
arbitrarily blocking Internet content, including news portals, and introduce
participatory, transparent processes into which the media, civil society, and
the public could have input. Blocking online content should be an action of
last resort, not the first. The blocking of The
Malaysian Insider, the Sarawak Report,
the Medium, and other online content
must be lifted immediately.

Finally, we call on the Malaysian government to adopt this
approach: the best way to counter alleged misinformation is more information,
not the restriction of information.

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